Open Door: Kingdom Building

SUMMARY

Chad Wheeler, CEO of Open Door, reflects on the organization's 28-year journey from a small gathering at Carpenter's Kitchen to a comprehensive ministry serving hundreds of people in need. Today, Open Door operates a community center, housing programs for the chronically homeless and survivors of sex trafficking, and a free clinic. Wheeler emphasizes the importance of building something that lasts, drawing inspiration from Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7:24.

Wheeler outlines three key steps to building in the way of the kingdom. First, listening: being open to God's voice, even in unexpected places. Second, seeing: recognizing Jesus in every person, regardless of their circumstances. Third, responding: taking action to meet the needs of those around us. He illustrates these principles with stories from Open Door's history, emphasizing the transformative power of seeing the face of God in unlikely people and places. Wheeler concludes by inviting the congregation to join Open Door in this approach, building a lasting foundation for ministry that can weather any storm.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Good morning, Broadway. It's great to be with you this morning and it's especially good to be here with my friends from Open Door. If this is your first time at an Open Door Sunday, welcome. This is a Sunday each year where we have a chance to share about Open Door with a story of the ways God is working across the street in our neighborhood and to invite you to continue joining us in the work. So I've met a lot of y'all, but if you don't know me, I'm Chad Wheeler.

I'm the CEO at Open Door. And today is a little different. So usually I get up here and I tell you a lot about what has happened in the past. If you know me, I love history and I love our story and I could just tell it all day. But I've been challenged recently to think and talk about the future.

So today I'm also going going to be sharing a little bit about what we are looking forward to together, where we're going and how do we build something that lasts. So I don't know if you can believe it, but 28 years ago, Broadway set out with a small group of people at Carpenter's Kitchen to share table fellowship in what became Carpenter's Church and what is now Open Door. We weren't trying to start a nonprofit back in those days. We weren't trying to build a big ministry. We just wanted to be present.

We just wanted to listen, to get to know people, to follow Jesus. And that's how Open Door was born. I'm going to share a little bit more about how that got started. But first I want to tell you a little bit about what we're up to today. So Open Door, if you don't know, we are just one block south of you here on 13th Street.

This is our church and our community center on the screen. And we are a unique and eclectic group of people. Anybody is welcome. An open door and just being a block away, I invite you to just pop over some Sunday, come hang out with us. You can pop over if you're a morning person.

We do morning prayer and coffee every morning at 7:00am Anybody's welcome to join us. What you're gonna find there is a group of people that are very diverse. Some are in homelessness, some are in housing. Some have college degrees. Some can't read or write.

Some are in families and some haven't seen family in decades. But we are a people who are coming together, finding belonging together with God and one another. So one of the things that we do at open door is called our community center. It, as I mentioned, what opens every day to the public at 7am and throughout the day. And what you're going to find at the community center is not just a place to find daily breakfast and coffee.

Did I mention we drink a lot of coffee? We drink so much coffee, I think between the hours of 7am and 9am throughout the week, we drink more coffee than Starbucks down the street. And we're competing with Monomyth and all the others, I think. So you're gonna find breakfast, showers, resources. But more than that, you're going to find people who know your name.

And that is something that has followed us from the very beginning. You’re gonna find people like Chase and Ryan and Katie and Jeff who just read our scripture, who are there every day to hang out with you, to let you know that you're welcome, that you belong. There are people that are going to remember your name. And right now, about 500 unique individuals walk through our doors every month at the community center. We also have a free clinic operating out of the community center.

And you may not have heard of this yet, but medical students from the Texas Tech health sciences center show up every Friday morning and provide free health care to our friends on the streets. And in about a month or two, we are going to be offering free dental care on Friday mornings to our friends in homelessness. It's a huge need and we're excited to have that opportunity to share next door. So we also have two housing programs. One is our supportive housing program.

This is a long term housing program for people that are coming out of chronic homelessness. And so chronic homelessness is people who have been homeless for more than a year and have a disability. And on our program, the average length, the time that a person was on the streets before moving into supportive housing is about 10 years. So think the people that have the biggest obstacles in their way, some of the biggest challenges to getting into housing and maintaining that housing. That's what this program focuses on.

And Tonight there are 85 people who have a home in supportive housing. We have another housing program called survivor housing. And at survivor housing, we provide temporary housing to support survivors of sex trafficking and their children. That program started in 2019 when we were contacted by the governor's office of the state of Texas and a local organization called Voice of Hope that works with survivors. And they said, we've got this need in our community.

Open door. We know you do housing. We know that you work with a lot of people in Vulnerable situations like women who are exploited on the streets. Would you consider jumping into housing and providing housing for that group? And so we said yes and we started opening our doors to survivors today.

Tonight there are 24 survivors with a whopping 46 kids in our Survivor housing program. And so we are super thankful to have that opportunity to serve that group of people. And I just want to pause right there for a moment and just think, 28 years ago, you and people in this room set out to invite our neighbors in, to create a place where every person belongs. And 18 years ago, when I started in 2008, whatever that was, 2007, we still only had one full time person 10 years in and we had a few people living in tents in our backyard. But today, thousands of people are served every year through Open Door by a team of 30 full time staff members.

And every night 155 people have a safe home because of what you have done, because what God has done through us. It's pretty incredible. Praise God. So as much as I love sharing this report with you each year and the things that God's doing, yeah, that's great.

We have a lot to celebrate today. I want to share about something bigger, something beyond just Numbers and programs and impact. I want to talk about building. And not just the physical kind of building, but the kind of building Jesus talks about. In Matthew 7:24, what Jeff just read for us, he talks about two builders, the wise and the foolish.

If you, like me, grew up in church, you probably sang this song. It's drilled into my head. I love the song because you get to go splat, you know, when the foolish man's house comes down. So the foolish man builds his house on the sand. He's like the man who hears and forgets and goes and does his own thing.

But the wise man, he hears the words of Jesus and does them. He's like the one who builds on the solid foundation of the rock. And so when the storms come, the waters rise, the house stands firm. It's a big question for us at Open Door and I think for all of us in this room. How do we build in a way that lasts?

How do we build in the way of the kingdom? How do we build something that weathers the storms? When the trials come, when change comes, how do we build something that endures? At Open Door, the work that we do is incredibly challenging. Some days it feels like we've come so far and really over the last 10 years, we have in many ways had a season of plenty.

We've grown significantly, we've had amazing opportunities unfold. But other days it feels like just one shift in funding, one little crisis, one unexpected change could undo years of progress. And so as a leader at Open Door, I'm asking, are we building something that's going to last when things change? When the famine comes, will what we have built stand? And I think Broadway has asked similar questions.

You've been around for what, 135 years this year, which is incredible. There was a time when thousands of people filled this auditorium and you had enormous capacity and enormous resources. So much so that you invested in pioneered ministries around the world in our own backyard, like the children's home of Lubbock and Open Door. But today Broadway looks different. And I think you and your leaders are asking, who are we now?

Who do we want to be in the next five years, the next 25 years? And what we are, what we've built, will it last? Jesus helps us with these very questions. In Matthew 7 he says, Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is building something that's going to last. Building in the way of the kingdom is not about having a great five year strategic plan.

It's not about having the right grants. It's not about having all the right resources or the right leaders. It is about listening to Jesus and doing what he says.

One of the things I want to begin with is listening. If you want to build in the way of the kingdom, we have to have ears to hear. It starts with listening and listening to Jesus and sometimes in the places we least expect. So a lot of you know the story of how Open Door started 28 years ago with Jim Beck, who made his way over to the kitchen, hopped in line, grabbed a plate of fried chicken and sat at the table and shared table fellowship with people. And that is a really important part of our DNA and what shaped us into who we are today.

Of people that value relationships and knowing the person across the table from us even more than the service we're providing. But there'a story behind that story that not everybody knows. And I actually didn't even know until just two years ago. And I was sitting with Jim and he was telling me about what he was going through before he made it over to the kitchen. And he tells a story.

You know, he had just, he and his family had just returned from Kenya. They'd been there for over a decade with the tallies and he had a job at LCU and was working part time here at Broadway and like can be the case when you make such a big shift in your life, you go through some hard adjustments, some reverse culture shock. And Jim tells a story of a Sunday morning where there were a thousand people in this room worshipping. And he was downstairs in the basement of this building by himself, crying and praying to God and saying, where are you? And what am I supposed to be doing?

That is how Open Door started. Not with somebody who had answers, but with somebody who had questions. Not with somebody who had a master plan, but somebody who was seeking. And when he found his way over to Carpenter's Kitchen, he found people who shared those questions, who also asked, where are you, God? I feel alone in the midst of a crowd, in the midst of a thousand people.

I feel alone. Where do I belong? He started with a question, started with listening. And together around the table, God started to respond and say, I am here with you. I love you.

That's where we start, with listening. The second thing we need to do is see. Jesus says in Matthew 25, anybody who seize me and responds to me, you're going to be welcomed. And those who saw me and rejected me, you're going to be turned away. And people ask, when did we see you?

When did we see you Hungry? When did we see you Thirsty? When did we see you a stranger and homeless? When did we see you in prison?

The two guys on the screen, Heavy and Leo, are people. When Jim and Brent and people in those early days saw them, they saw Jesus. They had eyes to see. And it was a very strange thing because if you knew Heavy in those days, which I didn't, but I've heard the stories, he was the guy that you didn't want to run into in an alley, you know, in a dark alley. His nickname on the streets was Vader, as in Darth Vader.

He was a rough guy. He was up to ripping and running, as he would say, and, you know, up to no good. And a lot of people would say, that guy, he’s the enemy. Stay away from him. And Jim saw heaven instead.

He saw a man of peace. He saw a child of God. He saw somebody that displayed Jesus on his face. The other guy, Quinn, he was at Carpenter's Kitchen before Jim ever showed up at Carpenter's Kitchen, before Carpenter's Church was even an idea, and had been homeless for many, many years, decades. And Quinn, he's here today.

He knows I love him. But I'll say that a lot of people looked at Quinn and said, this is a guy who. He doesn't want to change. He's going to stay in his mess. He's just up to no good.

He's a hopeless case. But the very first Sunday I was at Open Door 20 years ago as a college student in 2005, I came down and hung out, had no idea what I was getting into. And I sat in the room and I heard Quinn on a Sunday morning share that weekend he had binged and given into his addiction and he was feeling shame and he was feeling pain and he was crying in the room and Jim and Brent and the people all around him heavy and Leo as well said, hey, we love you, God loves you and you're in the right place. Keep coming back. And As a young 21 year old college student who'd grown up in the church, I sat there and I was just blown away by the grace of God that I was seeing, that people could see Quinn and see the inherent goodness, the face of God in my brother.

That is, I think one of the most important things about Open Door and one of our core beliefs and practices is to see the face of Jesus in every single person. No exceptions. The people that we encounter across the streets, the people that we encounter at Carpenter's Kitchen, they are not their mistakes and they are not defined by their condition. They are defined by the Creator of the universe who made them in his image.

The last thing that we need to do in order to build in the way of the kingdom is actually pretty easy. If you've gotten this far, if you've listened and you have seen Jesus in the face of your neighbor, the third thing we need to do is respond.

You know, Jim didn't set out to start Carpenter’s Church he didn't set out to start a nonprofit. We didn't set out to build housing. We didn't set out to house 155 people. We definitely didn't set out to provide one of the largest housing programs to survivors in the United States. No one could have dreamed that.

What we set out to do was be present and see Christ and our neighbor. And then it just so happened that our neighbor had all kinds of needs like housing and health care and belonging and education and coffee for sure. And when your friend, when Jesus shows up face to face when you see him and he needs a place to live, it's a no brainer. It's a natural response. So what will Open Door do in the future?

Will we build more housing? Will we help new people get into homes? I really hope so. It's a big part of my dream for the future. But I am not in control of the resources that we have.

I'm not in control of the building materials that show up.

What I can do and what I know is where to build on the foundation of Jesus. On the foundation of seeing Jesus and my neighbor and responding. I don't know if you've thought about this, but in Matthew 25, when Jesus, he's talking to people about seeing him, and how do you know that you've seen Jesus? And they're all asking, you know, when did we see you? Every single instance is tied to an action.

It's not just an idea. Well, we saw Jesus and we recognized you. Well, great. That's not what happens. That's not what Jesus recognizes.

Jesus recognizes your response. How do you know that you've seen Jesus because you've welcomed him in, because you've fed him, because you've clothed him, because you've visited him in prison. You can't really see Jesus without responding. And when you don't respond, you find yourself asking, when did I see you? And you truly don't know.

As we look ahead for Open Doors future and for Broadway's future again, we have dreams to house more and more people. We have dreams to welcome people in. There's no certainty in the work that we do. What we can do and what I'm committed to doing, and what I invite you to join us in doing is listening. Listening for the voice of God who says, I'm here, even among your neighbor down the street, seeing the face of God in unlikely places and unlikely people, and then simply responding.

That's how we build something that weathers the storm. That's how we build something that lasts. That's how we build a home that the community can take refuge in. In a moment, you're going to have a chance to give, to support Open Door. And for the last 28 years, you have helped us open doors for our neighbors.

Today, my question is this to you. If you have heard from the Lord, if you have seen the face of Jesus in your neighbor, I invite you to respond.